Encourage women's equal participation in politics

Paul Dewar plan to encourage women's equal participation in politics

“To end gender inequality in Canada, we need to start addressing gender inequality in the House of Commons.”
Paul Dewar
The United Nations minimum benchmark for a critical mass of women in Parliament is 30%. Canada currently fails to meet that benchmark, having elected only 24.7% women in the 2011 general election.
To elect more women to Parliament and encourage women's equal participation in politics, all parties should nominate more women as candidates. We can do that by introducing a new  per-vote subsidy, and using it as a tool to encourage all parties to strive to reach gender equity in their slate of candidates.
The improved per-vote subsidy model would require political parties to nominate a minimum of 30% women candidates to qualify for the basic subsidy of $1.50. The subsidy would increase as parties increase the percentage of nominated women candidates. A party will receive the full subsidy when they reach full gender equity in their slate, nominating 50% or more women candidates. The subsidy will be chained to inflation.

Percent of Women Candidates	Per-Vote Subsidy
< 30%	No Subsidy
30%-39.9%	$1.50
40%-49.9%	$1.75
50% +	$2.00

In the 2011 general election, only the New Democratic Party would have qualified for the $1.75 per-vote subsidy, having nominated 40.3% women candidates. The Bloc Québécois and the Green Party would have qualified for the $1.50 per-vote subsidy, having nominated 32.0% and 32.6% women candidates, respectively. The Liberals and Conservatives would not have qualified for a subsidy, as neither party nominated the minimum threshold of 30% women candidates.
Based on the 2011 results, the program would cost $10 million per year. Costs after 2015 election will depend on parties' ability to nominate women candidates and the voter turn-out in elections.